2024-04-23
Defining 'Contemporary'
The word 'Contemporary' has always evoked extreme emotions. On the one hand, it arouses curiosity and gives us an outline of current trends in a particular field of art, but on the other, it implies that things that have come before, have lost their relevance. The nature of contemporary photography is surrounded by many misunderstandings. It is often said that it is not 'on' something, but 'about' something. It is the context that is put on a pedestal.
Photography Today
According to the official definition, contemporary photography is photography that communicates the visual realization of a particular argument, idea, or concept. And although the boundary between contemporary photography and documentary photography, for example, is very thin, it can be said that documentary photography tells the story of what is being illustrated, whereas in contemporary photography the images illustrate something that lies beyond themselves, something that is intangible and cannot be directly illustrated. Images of any photographic genre become contemporary photography when they convey a message or ask a question. Its strength, is to operate with a whole palette of emotions. Those that the creator wants to convey to us, but also those that we individually feel when confronted with an image. She captures in the frame subjects that are important today and that arouse emotions. Fear, love, anger, happiness, have never been so topical.
In the offering of our latest auction 'Talent-Competitions', we have given space to young artists to show their work. Photographs make up a large part of the auction. What makes them stand out is their undoubted individuality and uniqueness.
'Photo with feathers' from the series 'Edifice', 2016
The photographs offered by us by Karol Pałka in the series 'Edifice' appear both as a documentation of post-Soviet interiors and as an aestheticisation of the effects of time and oblivion on Soviet architecture. Soviet architecture, captured in retrospect, highlights the ruins that metaphorically expose the true nature of the regime.
David Galiński's black and white photograph 'Dreamer' is another contemporary photograph in our auction. The face covered with fabric, as in René Magritte's 'Lovers', can symbolize suffocation, excess, a sense of lack of space or blindness. In an era, blindly following what is fashionable and for the masses, this frame evokes even stronger emotions.
'Reaching out' from the series 'I will make it when I grow up', 2017
Jadwiga Janowska's analogue photography is a play on form. The artist's innovative framing of an image is enriched by the hand visible in the foreground, stretched towards the painted stork. In her work, the artist explores the relationship between body and matter. These relationships, build us a new reality. Seemingly set in familiar realities, yet elusive in time and space.
Structure, form, and the curiosity behind them. The artist, Małgorzata Skoczylas, uses photography as a record of her own subjective gaze. As a result, her work in this field can be understood as a kind of reportage of reality in a non-obvious manner.
As the artist herself writes: “The search for ready-made shots and clear frames 'suspended' between reality and abstraction, found in the real areas of our lives, is a good way for me to embody my curious nature. A combination of 'explorer and researcher'. As looking and seeing are a matter ascribed to the individual's perception of the world, I am most keenly focused on photographing not so much the places themselves, but the ephemeral things and situations associated with different spaces and the relationality of events. I am troubled by the limits of our perception – to what extent does our imagination, curiosity, as well as the considerable array of instruments available today to record the world around us, allow us to discover, interpret and depict our reality again and again?”
The "Talent - Contests" auction runs until 26.03.2023 and showcases trends and themes emerging in recent art.
